Call me dense, call me stubborn, but unless someone I really like or really respect tells me to do something… it takes a while for me to come around. Sometimes that’s on purpose, sometimes it’s just not “getting it” right away.
All those years I read the writing advice “write every day” if you want to be a writer, I always had some excuse.
Who has the time?
What’s the point in writing if I’m not feeling it? It’s just going to be bad.
I schedule my writing time, and I just can’t find room for writing every day.
Etc.
And then, I started writing every day. Not because I was finally subscribing to that advice, but because I could, because I wanted to, because I finally had purpose (getting published), and so on.
At first, I didn’t even realize I was writing every day. Like I said, it wasn’t planned. It just started to happen.
And you know what happened?
My writing got better. My output got bigger. My dreams become a lot more realistic. And then? I got to the point where going a day without writing is painful. I got to the point where the number one thing I want to do in a day is write. I’ve always loved to write–for as long as I can remember it was what I did when I was troubled or sad or bored, and yet it never became everyday.
I do think there are people out there who legitimately do not have the time to write everyday. I am very lucky to be able to stay home with my son and that he takes naps still. Most days, I have at least an hour of dedicated writing time if not more.
And yet, that write every day advice? Pretty good. You get to a point where you can’t not write everyday. And I think if you can find a little time each day, you’ll find other ways to expand your writing time… even the busiest of people.
Nicole Helm 